Dubai: Emirates President Tim Clark said on Thursday the airline is seeing a drop of passenger traffic on flights to Africa from Asia over concerns of the Ebola virus.
“There are indications that demand in the east is coming off a bit because of a perception that Ebola is Africa-wide,” he told an audience at the African Global Business Forum in Dubai.
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is the largest in history since the virus was identified in 1976, with 3,338 people so far recorded to have died.
The virus has predominantly been confined to the West African countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Emirates suspended flights to Conakry, the capital of Guinea, in April in response to the outbreak of the disease.
“There are segments of our business in China, Taiwan and Vietnam that are very cautious,” Clark said.
He later told reporters there are no plans to cancel other flights to Africa in response to the Ebola outbreak and that outbound demand from Africa remains strong. The airline is actually looking to increase the number of routes and frequencies to the African continent.
Clark said on Wednesday that the airline would increase its network to 30 destinations in Africa by 2020, from the current 22. On Thursday. However, he said that number would stretch to “at least” 32 by 2025.
“I see more of what we’re doing and I see new cities in new countries in Africa,” he said.
Expansion plans
Clark singled out the Democratic Republic of Congo, referring to it by its former name Zaire, and West African nations Equatorial Guinea, Benin and Togo as possible destinations for the airlines African expansion plans.
“Where you see oil and gas discoveries is of interest to us,” he said.
Emirates is heavily invested in Africa with $7 billion (Dh25.7 billion) worth of aircraft used to serve the continent, which accounts for $2 billion of the Middle East’s largest airline’s operating costs. Clark said the value of the aircraft used on the African continent would increase to $10 to 12 billion as the airline increases services.
Clark also said that Emirates would launch Airbus A380 services to Lagos in Nigeria “today” if the airfield was capable of handling the superjumbo. The A380 is the world’s largest aircraft and needs certain runway and airport facilities to land and take off. Emirates is the world’s largest A380 operator with 52 in its fleet and nearly 90 more on order. Emirates will take delivery of four more superjumbos by the end of 2014.
